Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 4:30 a.m. in "The City."

I will attempt to keep this one short as my lower yak along with my left hip are achy this early a.m.

A current temperature of 64° under clear skies prevails as we head for today's high of 81° under sunny skies. Monday, the NWS is forecasting a 50% chance of a.m. T-storms that will limit the effect of the solar eclipse that day. Tuesday, the day I have to travel to the hospital for my orthopedic appointment for my hip, the NWS is forecasting a 100% chance for T-storms. The sun will rise later today @ 6:56 a.m. and set @ 8:38 p.m.

I made the vegan sausages yesterday. They taste great, as usual. STWD and I took the morning safari to The Bookman so that I could get the Grand Haven Tribune, which is mostly advertising, and also so that the intrepid weather dog could get her daily treat. Mary and Ginger went another direction. Later, that pair went all the way to the waterfront to see the annual Art on the Waterfront and the annual sidewalk sale on Washington Ave, downtown.

I stayed back to do some editing, which is probably why my yak is aching as I logged too much chair time. That is the impetus for my abbreviated blog this morning.

The Cubs were the only bright spot in yesterday's sports news as they won their NL Central inter-league game over the visiting Bluejays, 4 - 3. That gives the Cubs a record of 65 - 57 and a two game lead over the winning Brewers and two and one-half games over the losing Cardinals. Rookie Ian Happ got an RBI single in the 1st and a solo home run in the 4th along with scoring the tie-breaking run in the 6th on Javier Baez's single. Jose Quintana looked good for the win. The Cubs and the Bluejays play today @ 1:20 p.m. to close out their weekend series.

My beloved Red Sox fell to the Yankees last night, 3 - 4,  in a battle between the 1st and 2nd place teams in the AL East. That leaves the Sox alone in 1st place with a record of 70 - 52, 4.0 games ahead of the Yankees whom they play again today @ 1:30 p.m.

The Tigers? As usual, they fell off the rails and lost the game to the visiting Dodgers, 0 - 3. Some pundits might say that starting pitcher Michael Fullmer looked good and that the offense let him down. If you need a bright spot, that's all you've got. The Tigers are still mired in 4th place, six games ahead of that other team from Chicago. The Tigers will try to find another way to lose a ballgame today.

To paraphrase from that old Paul Simon song Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover there was a parody song written about the hapless Cubs of another era entitled, 50 Ways to Lose a Ballgame, that seems to apply to this year's version of the Tigers. At any rate, the Tigers "welcome" the Dodgers again today @ 1:10 p.m.

The Caps fell once again in the MWL East 1 - 3 to the Hot Rods to fall to a slim one-half game lead over the Hot Rods. The Caps now have a record of 36 - 18 and those teams play again this evening @ 5:05 p.m.

Otherwise, more indexing to do, more cooking is possible, and more of whatever needs to be done. As of necessity, I'll be taking an abbreviated safari with STWD this morning before settlling in. Ciao.